Fact: The Stooges are one of the most influential rock bands of all time.

Fact: Raw Power is one of the most influential rock albums of all time.

Released in 1973 to sparse acclaim and an underwhelming commercial performance – Raw Power peaked at #182 on the Billboard charts – the album eventually spread like a virus throughout the next generation of rock musicians, many of whom would introduce their own fans to The Stooges. Among them: Kurt Cobain, who named Raw Power his all-time favourite; Johnny Marr of The Smiths (and, more recently, Modest Mouse and The Cribs); Henry Rollins (who has the words ‘Search And Destroy’ tattooed across his shoulder blades); and Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols, who says he learned to play guitar by taking speed and playing along to Raw Power.

Of the album’s guitarist, James Williamson (main pic, far left - 1972), Johnny Marr said: “I'm his biggest fan. He has the technical ability of Jimmy Page without being as studious, and the swagger of Keith Richards without being sloppy. He's both demonic and intellectual, almost how you would imagine Darth Vader to sound if he was in a band.” Williamson first joined The Stooges in 1971 as second guitarist, but the band was dissolving before his eyes. Only a recording offer from David Bowie to Williamson and vocalist Iggy Pop got them back together for one last stab at rock stardom as The Stooges. With the Asheton brothers in tow – Scott (drums) and Ron (bass at the time, but he’d later play guitar during more recent incarnations of the band, up until his death in 2009) – Williamson co-wrote Raw Power with Iggy and played all of the guitar parts. Despite Bowie’s involvement, though, the record didn’t perform commercially, and the band again split. Williamson went on to collaborate with Iggy as a writer and producer for a couple of Pop’s solo ventures (1977’s Kill City and 1979’s New Values), but after falling out with the singer over Soldier’s recording methods, the pair remained estranged for 16 years.

What happened next is one of rock music’s strangest tales: James Williamson gave up on music entirely, graduated from California State Polytechnic University with a degree in electrical engineering, and went on to work for Sony Electronics for 25 years. Most of his colleagues had no idea of Williamson’s involvement with The Stooges, despite Iggy Pop doggedly working himself into a position of international notoriety as one of rock’s most outlandish performers. The Raw Power guitarist wanted nothing to do with it. It took a university essay written by Williamson’s son, entitled ‘Coffins In The Corner’ – in reference to his father’s guitar cases sitting up against the wall, unopened all throughout his childhood and adolescence – to provoke the guitarist to finally accept Iggy’s offer to reform the band in the wake of Ron Asheton’s death last year. It also helped that Sony offered him a generous early retirement package from his role as Vice President of Technology Standards. Now Williamson, aged 61, is touring the world, playing The Stooges’ celebrated catalogue to a new generation. The Vine connected with the guitarist ahead of the band’s appearance on the Big Day Out tour in January and February 2011.

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Andrew, how are you doing?

I'm very well, thanks. It's 7 a.m.

7a.m.? [laughs] I'm sorry to put you through that, but I guess we could find the time we could both do it.

Absolutely. It's an honour, mate. I found your website while I was researching for this interview. I was intrigued by a couple of things. First, what's the origin of your nickname?

Oh, Straight James? After The Stooges had split up, Iggy came out with an album called The Idiot, and he had a song on there called ‘The Dum Dum Boys’ (link). In that song he talks about “Ron did this,” and “Scott, he did that”, and then “What about James? He’s gone straight”. So after that, I tongue-in-cheek named my publishing company ‘Straight James Music’ and it kinda stuck from there. I've had it ever since.

Secondly, what's the story behind the quote on your guitar picks?



Oh. Well, it's funny, that’s again it's sort of a play-off on the ‘Straight James’ name. There's a famous saying that the "shortest distance between points is a straight line," so I - actually my wife came up with it a little bit, and then I stole it from her: "The shortest distance between two chords, is Straight James."

Very apt. How much business do you get through the web store? Is there much of a demand for Straight James shirts?

Hmm. There was a big rush on them when I first put ‘em up there, but the people who wanted them already ordered them. So people come through in dribs and drabs. I really didn't put that up there to make any money. It kinda just pays for the stuff that, if people want it, I could make it available to them. But I'm not actually making any money off of it.

So it wasn't a result of your entrepreneurial spirit coming through?

No, no. Actually, we sell merchandise at shows and stuff, and that's certainly much more lucrative than selling t-shirts off your website. I cover the shipping all the way, anywhere in the world, really. So since we have so many European and Australian people who like us, a lot of times it ends up costing me money to send you a shirt. But it's okay! [laughs]

I was looking at the guitars you've posted on the website. Do you only use the Les Paul and the Tele when playing live these days?

Well actually, on my website I've got all kinds of guitars on there, but I don't use them for the shows. The sound that people are accustomed to me playing is the Les Paul sound through Vox amps. I don't actually play a Tele, I play a Stratocaster sometimes, but I actually stopped doing that now in more recent shows. I just use Les Pauls. I use Blackstar amps, which is a circuit that's very similar to a Vox. It's a Vox sound, but they're a lot more reliable.



So I have several Les Pauls that I go on the road with, and some of them are modified to also have some pickups built into the bridge saddle, so that I can have an acoustic sound for some of the numbers. Like ‘Gimme Danger’ and things like that, that require an acoustic part. They're specialised, but all of them are modified with my custom pickups in them and so forth. So they all sound like the original guitars.

Do they all have that custom ‘Lady Leopard’ artwork?

No, unfortunately I can't get that… it's not available anymore. The guy that did that back in the ‘30s and stuff, those things are not available anymore; or at least, I haven't been able to find any. I was talking to Gibson about doing a signature guitar and having them reproduce the artwork, but it never came to pass. The economy got bad on us, so I don't know whether that will ever happen or not. Only the original one has that decal on it.

One last question about the website. Can you tell me about the origin of the quote in the header? (“Music makes time collapse, yet time lets music erect itself”)

Oh, yeah. It just was something that, when I started back up doing this, I started rehearsing with a band called the Careless Hearts. We put in quite a few hours rehearsing, and one night when I came home very late, it was something that came to me, and it rang true. And so I decided to put it up there, and I think it holds up pretty well.

Do you think that quote applies to The Stooges?

Well, yeah. I think it applies to everything, really. I think music does collapse time. If you think about any song you've ever heard that takes you back to whatever it was - the first date you were on, the time you did this or that - that's the power of music. By the same token, time itself is essential for music to even exist, because music has time associated with it. So certainly, it does apply to The Stooges, as well as to everything.

We're talking right now because you're playing the Big Day Out next month. You've certainly had a sharp spike on media requests over the last couple of years. Do you enjoy the attention?

Well, you know… especially guys like us, that were so uniformly ignored and rejected for most of our careers in music, having the recognition and having the attention is very gratifying. But by the same token I'm a very private person. I've spent most of my life trying to be normal, really. So getting all the attention sometimes is difficult for me. But, on the other hand, I don't refuse it either. [laughs] So I guess it's kind of a mixed blessing. I'm thrilled to be coming down there and performing in Australia. This will be my first trip down there. I've been to most parts of the world, but not to Australia, so I'm really, really looking forward to it.


Iggy and the Stooges - 'TV Eye' and '1970' live in 1970

Your transition from music to electronics certainly makes for a great story, which many journalists have picked up on since you've been back in the spotlight. From time to time while you were at Sony, did you ever imagine that one day you'd be talking to an Australian journalist ahead of a national tour with The Stooges?

[laughs] No, never in my wildest dreams! In fact I never had really considered ever coming back to the music business. It just is almost astonishing. It's as astonishing to me as it is to other people who hear about it, because I really had no idea I'd be doing this right now.

During those three decades away from playing guitar, were you still a music fan?

No, but, well… how can you avoid music? I was occupied with other things. I was busy with my career and my family, and so I was a regular music fan, I guess, or maybe even a little less so than most. But over the years, as I grew older, I started to get into a lot of more obscure music styles and that's a whole other story about Hawaiian music and various different instruments, and so on. But then as I've gotten back into rock and roll, I've really started to put a lot of energy into it again, and I'm really enjoying it, and coming up with some new ideas and things. So yeah - I'm coming around! [laughs]

The Big Day Out's got a pretty huge line-up of a lot of popular, contemporary bands. Are there any particular artists that you're looking forward to seeing?

Oh, you know, I'm not quite sure about the line-up, so you'd have to help me there, but I'm always interested to see different guys, maybe that I've never heard of or seen before or had any exposure to. That's who I particularly like to run into, because I can learn something new. I will say one thing that I'm really excited to get to go to New Zealand as well, because I have a luthier down there named Tony Francis (link) who I have developed a correspondence with. He built a guitar for me, an old Hawaiian-style lap-steel guitar, and he's quite an interesting guy. A very specialised guitar maker. I've found that there’s a number of guys like that in Australia and New Zealand, so I'm really looking forward to meeting some of these people who I never get a chance to be exposed to.

Going back to what you said about how you're looking forward to seeing bands that you haven't heard before; I wonder if one of the current goals of The Stooges is that discovery aspect; to expose your music to a new generation?

Well, it certainly is turning out that way. I think it's an interesting phenomenon in that when we first started out, our music was so radically different from other bands' music that people listening to it had no context. They had no frame of reference to being able to relate to the music, and so they couldn't. But over the years we've been imitated enough that I think the sound we have now actually sounds very contemporary, and people recognise the style. The only difference is; it's our music, you know, and I think we do it better. What I'm struck by when I go out, like last summer, is how few of the bands these days really know how to rock anymore. They do a lot of things, but they don't rock. So that's something we do, and I think it's something people like. I think you can see them visibly, palpably excited by it. So that's gratifying.

How did you learn how to rock, James?

Good question! [laughs] I can't answer that! I taught myself pretty much how to play guitar. I did learn a few things from one of my neighbours and took it from there, but I always pretty much wrote my own music. I just sort of made a lot of noise until I kinda liked what I was doing. You know, I don't know how to answer that! It's something you have inside you, and this particular group of guys, when we play together there's just a special quality about it. That's what I call ‘rocking’. When we get it going, there's a lot of energy in that show, and I think it has the power to move people.

What does it mean to you when you meet fans and they tell you how influential your guitar playing has been to them?

It means a lot me, actually, because I've spent most of my life not really believing that that was true. I'm starting to. Well, I guess I have started believing it. It's really, really an amazing feeling to have people in your lifetime tell you what you did was important to them in their own lives. I've had so many people tell me that now, that I really do feel somewhat humbled, really, in a lot of ways. It really feels great that anybody would care.

I believe you've got the toughest job in the band, because your guitar parts are played hard and fast. Do you have any warm-up techniques before you go on stage?

Not anything specific. I do always have a guitar backstage and I do insist the band will - before the show - we will always rehearse the beginnings and endings of the songs. It kind of is a warm-up, but also it keeps everything fresh in your mind. When we go on stage, when we hit the stage, there's no stopping. It's just one continuous song after the other one, and if you lose your concentration or get lost somewhere, you're completely lost. We can't afford that, so we've very careful about that. So I have a guitar back there. We do some run-throughs, and then before we go on stage I'll be noodling around, getting my fingers going. But it's just mostly a lot of preparation for the shows. We're ready. When you come see us, it's not like the old days where you might get a good show, or you might not. [laughs] You're going to hear a good show when you see us. We're ready to play when you see us.

You mentioned that it's important to stay focused. Is it difficult to do that when Iggy invites the fans up on the stage?


Iggy and the Stooges - live in Sao Paulo

Well, my first exposure to that was in Sao Paulo, Brazil, our first show in November 2009, and I didn't know what to think. At first I used to hide behind my amp, because part of my problem is I have these switches and pedals on the ground, so if somebody steps on one of those, I'm out of commission. I've got my guitar tech there protecting them, but sometimes it gets so rough up there that even he can't do it! I’ve had a time or two where I've gone offline for a little while until we could get the signal back. It doesn't bother me that the kids are up there; I enjoy that, but I just worry about… we still have to play, especially the pedalboard and all that has to be still working. And the kids, they don't know. They're just all dancing around, so they start stumbling all over the place and next thing you know, I'm out! [laughs]

Final question: Have you ever tried to play ‘Search and Destroy’ on Guitar Hero?

Yes! As a matter of fact, I have! I was down in Texas with my nieces and nephews and family members. They brought out Guitar Hero II, because they'd discovered that one of my songs was on it, so they made me play against them and they absolutely kicked my ass! It was pitiful. Because it's a completely different thing [to playing guitar], of course, but it was really, really, really bad. In fact, I couldn't beat anybody. [laughs]

So you gave it more than that one shot? You gave it a few tries to try to get the hang of it?

I gave it a few tries, and I did get better. But you need to give it a lot more than a few tries if you're going to get good at that game. [laughs]

James, it's been an honour to speak with you. Thank you very much.

My pleasure.

Andrew McMillen

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BIG DAY OUT - 2011

Sunday 23rd January – Parklands, Gold Coast
Wednesday 26th January – Showground, Sydney
Sunday 30th January – Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne
Friday 4th February – Showground, Adelaide
Sunday 6th February – Claremont Showground, Perth

Details: www.bigdayout.com